Chapter 42
42
S ean laughed and clapped his hands. "Mina, girl, that is brilliant. That is brilliant. Not sure how good I'll be as a podcaster."
She smiled at him. "Dad, you're used to playing before an audience. You know how it all works, and the way I see it, if we're going to have a music show, having a musician on it seems to lend a lot of credibility. Plus, where you might be a little rougher around the edges, Mom softens you up, and vice versa."
She looked over at her mom. "Sometimes you can be a little stiff and unbending, Mom."
Gloria looked at her daughter, her brows furrowed. "Excuse me!"
Mina shrugged. "Sorry, just kind of telling it like it is from my producer's hat."
Mina turned back to the group. "So I think we can do just like we did Friday. And actually, as I'm thinking of it, if we do the editing ourselves, we can publish, release, and submit Friday’s interview. And we would own the rights to the interview. None of it has gone to editing yet because I haven't sent it over. I wanted to look at it first. As a matter-of-fact, we could even redo that interview with you and Dad. We could do it for the podcast. That could be our first installment. And it would be perfect timing for it. And then the concert, the Crossroads concert with Chris Stapleton, that can be added to the podcast as well. And actually, we can record that. I'll work with Chris Stapleton's people on it. And we'll own that. And then in the future, we could have guests on. And Dad, you could do Crossroads things with everybody." Her excitement bubbled over.
"Or..." she looked at Jami. "Or you could, Jami. Or all of you could. We can really make this a big thing."
Jami laughed. "Well, we'll see how our schedules all go. I don't want to commit myself to a podcast if I can't follow through with it. But if we're available, I'll be there. I'll help out in any way I can. And actually, we can have our PR people promote the podcast, also."
Sean's heart was so full. His friends were here with him. And he was so proud of Mina. So proud of her. He turned and looked at Gloria. She even had a little grin on her face. "You did good with her."
Gloria smiled. "She's a smart girl. She can run circles around me."
They chatted a little while longer. Mina's headache was gone. She was in action mode. She was taking notes. Rifling off emails. She asked if she could take a few minutes to get her notes in order so she could get some things out of her head. And he had to laugh. That's exactly how he was. When he had songs in his head or things that he needed to work on, he just needed to get that out of his head so that he would be good company afterwards.
Jami stood. "If you'd like to hear the songs we wrote yesterday, we can head into the studio."
Mina said, "I do. I want to hear."
He helped her get up from the sofa. Still a little painful. She wore a brace around her ribs.
Then she had a pillow behind her back. He carried that for her into the studio. Tony picked up a barrel chair they had in the lounge and carried that into the studio for Mina. He situated her chair, so she was facing the band. He brought another chair for Gloria. Tony sat next to Gloria up front and Sean excitedly picked his guitar off the stand and slipped the sling around his neck. Jami turned and nodded and they each nodded in return or gave a thumbs-up.
"One, two, three."
Sean began playing, then Jami began singing. Axel had the percussion down pat, and the backups added their voices to his words.
There were times he couldn't look at Gloria. He saw the tears in her eyes streaming down. He saw her swiping them away. That's how he felt when he played them. So he closed his eyes, and he dug deep into the song and he played his heart out. When they were all finished, everyone in the band started laughing.
"Oh, my God, that is so good!" Mads said.
"It is." Jami nodded to him. "Good song, Sean. Man. Good song." He punched him on the shoulder a little bit.
Sean stared at Gloria. Finally, she smiled and nodded. And he knew that's all her emotions would let her do. He walked over to Mina, and he knelt down in front of her chair.
"What did you think, girl?"
"Dad, it's beautiful. I can't believe you wrote that song so fast. I'm so proud of you."
He stood and kissed Mina on the forehead. He said, "Honey, I'm proud of you, too."